Wednesday, October 3, 2012

I have tested a new method to publish my 3D-images as a form of Lenticular prints.

For this technique to work, I need series of images from different angles, in this case 24 images are needed.

Lenticular printing is actually an old technique but in past few years it has become much more sophisticated.

The results can be stunning visually, image plane disappears and object floats in and outside of the frame.

Since astronomical objects are too far away, no real parallax can be imaged. Doe to that, I have developed a method to turn my images to various 3D-formats. My work flow is based on scientific data from the object, distance and the source of ionization are usually known. The different types of the nebulae has typical structures, pillar like formations must point to the source of ionization, the radiation pressure forms kind of hollow area, inside of the nebula, around newly born stars, dark nebulae must be at front of the emission ones to show, etc... rest of the missing information is then replaced with an artistic vision.

The whole process is pretty much like sculpting!

An image set of IC 1396, used for a lenticular print, as an animation. (More of my experimental 3D-images under a folder "Volumetric 3D images" in my Portfolio http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/)

Please, wait for few moments for animation to load, the size is ~7MB

The animation shows, IC 1396, a largish ionization zone in Cepheus.

AN UPDATE

08.01.2013

The astronomer Phil Plaitcollected an annual list of the best astronomical images for the year 2012.This experimental image of IC 1396 was selected as one of them.

I turned the original 2D-image to 3D by using a surface modeling software (TrueSpace).

Image is first divided to layers by its content, each layer is then projected to a 3D-surface.

To have good and realistic forms, I did use an other software, Bmp2CNC, it converts the shades in the image to a 3D-form. I have semi automated the whole process, it'll takes about 20 min. to make a 3D model like in this example is used.

A screen shot from the TrueSpace modeling software.

This kind of model gives much more freedoms to animate, than is used in this example.

A series of 24 images, with about one degree increments, are needed for the lenticular 3D print.

14 comments:

Oh man I've been trying to do this as a 2.5D using the Horse Head Nebula in After Effects, I think I'm going to have to breakdown and Use Nuke, and split up the imagery more.I'm only working from one image so I have to use a little create license to create the planes. I just want to create a small amount of parallax. Very neat though, I love to do space images for fun!

Amazing animation! I created an anaglyph movie from the gif file and the 3D effect is stunning. I've not posted it anywhere in respect for your copyright. With your permission, I'd like to up-loaded it to YouTube so you can take a look. Would that be OK? Or maybe you have already created an anaglyph movie yourself?

I'm creating graphics for a game. I wish that there was an easier way to create CG. It's not only doing artwork, but concepts & software and animation, & so on! Anyway, I really like all of the helpful art info on this post.

3D computer graphics rely on many of the same algorithms as 2D computer vector graphics in the wire-frame model and 2D computer raster graphics in the final rendered display. In computer graphics software, the distinction between 2D and 3D is occasionally blurred; 2D applications may use 3D techniques to achieve effects such as lighting, and 3D may use 2D rendering techniques.

3D converted astro images in different formats

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